Newcastle Beach.  April evening.   Swim between the flags or not at all.  Lifeguards: once known as lifesavers.
Caught a boardrider but the rubbish bin in not so good.

By all accounts vinyl is Stayin Alive, the bee gees vol 2
(probably acquired at a garage sale)

view from Newcastle Beach 

this is present day Newcastle just for the record

Newcastle Beach when a tallish building casts a shadow.

Our secular society holds official ANZAC Day services with content that has Christian overtones. We must make up our minds. Are we for or against certain beliefs? On that day liturgy is celebrated and tolerated by citizens at large. Tradition. Timelessness.

Ironically the leading memorial service is held in a Muslim country. Australian service men fought in countries steeped in Muslim, Orthodox and Christian beliefs. A whole array of Christian saints of long ago are from those same lands and battlefields of Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and even France. So. Just saying.

Are we flexible or inflexible?

A choral festival or contest (Songs of Praise, BBC via ABCTV1) features choirs of primary and high school students of the UK who sing songs of praise – traditional and modern – in outstanding style.

Strangly, the students were not necessarily from church schools, some were, while government schools participated and won some.  I doubt one of the largest churches was representated.

Contrast this with Australia where I imagine our legislation proscribes songs of praise in our state schools, yet there, you may even hear said a prayer invoking a deity. We are aok over contradictions. Some of the time.

Today was one of those magnificent clear days due to a strong breeze from the right direction.  With the first winter's chill.  Newcastle South Beach.
Lower: A game of Two Up in the car park at a hotel - a once in a year activity on Anzac Day.

ANZAC Day 2012.
National Day.

Those taking part in this commemoration placed sprigs onto the cenotaph. 
Corpus Christi Church.

Pacific Street. 
The end of the street was closed up for developments, that were demolished and replaced by the current development named 'the Royal' something or other.  How insensitive.

 

EMPIRE PARK Sunday. Skateboards, Bar Beach, Football, Tennis, Bowling Green Meet, Tee .

 

rage  rage ragerageragerageragerageragerageragerage
rageragerageragereagerageragerageragerageragerage
ragerageragerageragerag

rage 25 years silver jubilee abc tv overnite saturdays

a person of mature age said recently how she 'thinks' younger now, than when she was young,  and its true of me too, regardless of how this blog usually sounds. 
Men at work -  it takes me back to hearing Land Down Under in a village pub in the Netherlands...vegemite sandwich was making its presence felt over the tulips and farms.....Vale.

Here is a fine example of a residence that has emerged in this anthropocene.  For years now the house has looked good. Blue paint work seems a more recent innovation and maybe, not ideal.

The postperson is there again among the passing traffic.

More and more rain today
Pluie, pluie, pars au loin
un autre jour, reviens. 

All the leaves are _____and the ____ is grey.  I've been for a _____ on a _____'s day
I'd be safe and _____if I was in _____ .
_________ Dream'in on such a _____'s  day.

After Mamas Papas 1965

Rain rain go to Spain.  From the ridge above Merewether yesterday 

Rain.
Postman.  Hail Rain or Shine.

Buses.  Less public transport is on the roads on Sundays.

We are full of contradictions.  I don't object to films made in the UK or Europe  and rarely watch anything else and don't bemoan the influences on our culture. They feel right.
No real ties exist now with the UK all that finished long ago. Yet am sorry about the influences coming from sources other than the UK.  In particular violence, guns and non-stop shouting.
One theme shows up from the UK namely an attitude about Eastern Europeans: dodgy, crims, exploited, victims, worthy of rescue and certain banter - is it to help sell the programs in the EU?   We all have certain biases.

Big things seen at the ''Foreshore' yesterday. And how come Alpha Century isn't loaded to the gunnels? 
Century? Another big thing. Alpha Centauri as I understand, is the closest star, really a binary star, the brightest in the Southern hemisphere yet visible in the nothern summer at latitudes like that of Galveston.  The star points to the Southern Cross.

It is entertaining to read Richard Glover's column in Spectrum  (SMH). Recently he was in full swing about how pubs and other little institutions become up-maket, the beach-side kiosk 'converted into an oyster and semillon bar', the municipal pool 'with a bull-necked manager who was a complete bastard'. Spot on.  How would Glover like the Hunter vineyards?

Examples of original old pubs are found in this district but no two country pubs are the same with evidence of a series of alterations and additions in handyman style.  Look hard for signs of a kitchen, a bistro, who takes the orders?  Where does this door lead?
Although I havn't read a notable book in its entirety for several years, why skim thru Spectrum?  The films and TV reviews for one. Food. This and that. Some pages lapse into strange sophisticated Sydney-city speak. Other writers are obtuse but offer a good opportunity to challenge the mind....one of these days....

Old fotos of coal mining.  Heard that little old coal carriages were stopped by throwing a length of wood at the wheels somehow.

Senator Bob Brown, foremost advocate for our good survival, is retiring from the Greens.  He is expert at spelling out the most significant issues of our time.
Sustainability, in its widest sense, was gaining traction.  Hope has turned to disbelief.  Who was to know that this nation would become totally committed to plundering the counryside and seaside on the pretex that any darn fool thing is excusable because the world needs energy supplies NOW.  And jobs - the ultimate test.  And a fast buck.

Where is the revolution to alternative energy?  Where is protection of the environment and of biodiversity?  Protection of food growing areas and the natural scenic appearance of the landscape? Protection from pathogenic coal dust and pollution?  Murray Darling conservation that hurts vested interests?

We have even invited other nations to colonise and mine and up the ante.  To share our resources would be gratifying but it is just feeding Asia's etc addiction to fossile fuel.
At the same time as our fuel exports make sure that other places are polluted and produce carbon emissions, (never at a rate as high as our own), at home we rightly graple with a carbon tax and emissions trading.  And if it does lead us to more expensive electricity and fuel, subsidies from the government apart, well, that's what sustainability takes.  Less consumption is the name of the game.
Our lifestyle is over the odds and it takes a competent member of the Greens to keep calling us to account.

Is it the end of the road, or a no-joy ride or a detour for Newcastle soccer and its problems?  It is wise to guard against car theft  especially state of the art Italian cars that have been known to be taken for a joy ride and worse.  

From a new dining spot.  Probably named Merewether Surfhouse. On Wednesday. What a difference a day makes. Stunning on Monday, perfect on Wednesday.  Windy stormy and rough seas.

We are hearing about the War on Drugs.  Here is a robotic pharmacist at Doc's Pharmacy-factory at the hospital. Be amazed....scared. The legal drugs inside the fortress are mechanically selected and placed on the slippery dip - I suppose.  

Sport in Newcastle is in uproar. The future of the Jets is up in the air.  Does the mining millionaire-sponsor suspect that a CIA conspiracy has drawn him into football and financial disaster?!!  Just saying.....

Cheers from Newcastle, Easter Monday!

Encomium
Autumn twitter at dawn
glorious summer went viral high noon

Cheers from Newcastle!
Bar Beach today.

Paschal Candle.  We have come into the light!
Standing room only this Easter Sunday.

Terrible news.  Supplies of Sanitarium brand Marmite are very scarce in New Zealand. What is the situation in Australia. Tense?  Or is the problem an urban myth?
Marmite, the original yeast spread, is meat free and is said to be unlike the UK product. It is much nicer than Vegemite which is a very serious statement by an Aussie. Sanitarium food company originated with the Adventists who are vegetarian, I understand.  The label states that Marmite is a rich source of Vit B complex, B12 and Iron which vegetarians and all of us need in our diet.

Wedding decor.  This month two figures on the music scene in Newcastle, Bernadette Lannen and Philip Matthias, will be wed at St Joseph's East Maitland in what will be a fine celebratory musical setting due, to a large extent, to their role in Newcastle University Chamber Choir. Surely a ghostwritten Bach Cantata is a distinct possibility for the happy occasion!

Tuff'in Up Boxing Gym. 

You don't get hit You just get fit

What's behind the green door.....welcome to the Hotel California....
Inside the inn.  The Ploughman's Lunch was a good choice, very enjoyable in the opinion of a food luddite.
Settlers Arms, St Albans.

In the early days, drinking on Saturday night, or on any night, might lead to trouble around the horse trough.

How often does it happen that when you tamper with a clock the battery decides to fail?  Do sales of batteries increase with the change to or from daylight savings time?  Midnight and the alarm on our mini weather station just decided to wake us up. How many hours of Delroy will I be listening to? Add carob and hot milk.

Still life in the sick bay!

Get drunk on Saturday nights at your peril.  A surgeon who has manned the fort on selected weekends for most of his career is calling it quits.  No more drunks or motorcyclists or weekend trauma for him. His skills are just taken for granted he intimated.

'
Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabachthani?'  This week's religious dramas will be from the sacred living script of old.

It was more than coincidence that the film 'Into the Wild' was shown late last night (on SBS) - the night of Earth Hour. Also the night before Palm Sunday and the end of daylight saving time.
With social networking it seems less likely that any of us would literally drop-out and 'find ourselves' in the wilderness anymore.  How surprising,  an anarchic, lyrical film such as that emerging from our materialistic society.